M51 Whirlpool Galaxy - first light Atik 490ex

[andyo]

Great image with superb detail

[x6gas]

Fantastic. Gotta get me one of them....!

Thinking of going CCD and wow this 490 must be a contender - Now all I have to do is work out how to afford/justify it!!

Yep it looks to be an awesome camera. Fortunately for me the 490 looks exactly the same as the 460 and so long as they are never in the same place at the same time my wife will never know.

I went out to try to capture some Ha/R/G/B last night but just could not find a guidestar. Had the same set up, same orientation of the camera but the star I used before just didn't seem to be there... Not sure if the moon was washing it out or what but very frustrating!

[Pete Presland]

thats a cracking image very nicely done!

[Pete Presland]

nice detail in there.

you have a screw loose!

[astro mick]

Ah well I do have a Hyperstar Ewan. Got it on here but haven't had the chance to use it yet... I'm only really just beginning to get to get to grips with the EdgeHD having really fallen in love with short fracs for nebula. But as I say above, I really bought this scope in order to chase this sort of target.

This was one of the first images I captured almost exactly 2 years ago...

So I think I've come a long way!

I,ve got new,s for you,after 2 yrs my images still look like that.

Seriously great image,and cant add to whats been said.

Mick.

[Welrod50]

nice detail in there.

Belly button or hoover??

[DrRobin]

Very nice image of M51. We have the same scope and that was one of my first targets, but with a 600D. Interesting, as I only needed 120 second exposures, at ISO 800, I think and I note you used 300 seconds. I too have a Hyperstar, it is very good, but watch out not to over tighten it as my whole secondary holder started to rotate and came loose. I have managed to tighten it up with a little help from Mrs DrRobin's slender hands, her's would fit inside to hold the inner tube whilst I tighten the outer, but the alternative was to take off the corrector plate, not a job I fancied due to the alignment afterwards.

Robin

[x6gas]

Very nice image of M51. We have the same scope and that was one of my first targets, but with a 600D. Interesting, as I only needed 120 second exposures, at ISO 800, I think and I note you used 300 seconds. I too have a Hyperstar, it is very good, but watch out not to over tighten it as my whole secondary holder started to rotate and came loose. I have managed to tighten it up with a little help from Mrs DrRobin's slender hands, her's would fit inside to hold the inner tube whilst I tighten the outer, but the alternative was to take off the corrector plate, not a job I fancied due to the alignment afterwards.

Robin

Thanks Robin.

I had the same trouble with the secondary housing; apparently it is fairly common. I did the same as you and tightened it a bit, but I ended up flocking the scope which meant removing the corrector so took that opportunity to tighten it properly.

Removing the corrector isn't as bad as it sounds. I marked the position with a white paint pen. The hariest part is removing it for the first time as mine had a couple of dabs of what looks like mastic holding it and it took some gentle persuasion to remove!